During a hearing on Tuesday, the chief medical officer at Camp Mystic testified that she had not reported the deaths of 27 girls from last year’s flood to state health regulators, as the Texas camp seeks a license to reopen.
Mary Liz Eastland is the chief medical officer at Camp Mystic. She is a registered nurse (graduated from Baylor Nursing School in 2007) and a longtime member of the Eastland family that owns and operates the camp. She provided testimony amid a legal battle between the camp’s operators and the victims’ families. The families are suing the camp and are seeking to preserve flood-damaged areas as evidence.
The two-day hearing has unveiled extensive details about the predawn flood on July 4, which resulted in the deaths of 25 campers and two teenage counselors.
Texas administrative code requires camps to report deaths to state health regulators within 24 hours.
“I did not think of this requirement in the moments happening after the flood,” Eastland said, per CBS News Texas. She added that she had not reported the deaths by the camp’s March 31 application to reopen.
Eastland could not recall exactly when she learned of the deaths, saying it might have been a day or several days after the flood. Her father-in-law, Richard Eastland, also died in the disaster. Pressed on whether she should report the deaths now with the license pending, Eastland replied, “I guess so.”
The camp’s application lists officers and includes floodplain maps. Operators must submit a detailed safety plan, but it remains shielded from public view.
State regulators plan to inspect the camp and are reviewing hundreds of complaints.
The agency has enlisted the Texas Rangers investigative unit and said, “DSHS will consider any findings from the inspection and investigation when making the determination on the renewal application.”
The camp wants to reopen part of the campus this summer for nearly 900 girls, a plan that has angered victims’ families. The family of 8-year-old Cile Steward, the sole camper still missing, filed the lawsuit that led to this week’s hearing. They argue the camp should not reopen under Eastland family leadership. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has stated that no license should be issued until all investigations end.
Mary Liz Eastland testified after her husband, Edward Eastland, faced hours of questioning Monday and Tuesday on missed weather warnings, delayed evacuation decisions, and frantic rescue efforts as floodwaters created rapids around cabins. He tearfully recounted grabbing two girls and another who jumped on his back before they were swept away.
“A genuine hero testified today,” said Mikal Watts, one of the attorneys for the Eastlands, per CBS. “He told a gripping story of saving lives in an unprecedented tsunami. I am proud to represent Edward Eastland and his family.”
Mary Liz Eastland described fleeing her flooding house that night with her children to join her mother-in-law. Water poured in and broke a window; the family reached higher ground. At sunrise near the riverbank, she saw “girls in trees.” Staff gathered survivors for a head count using cabin rosters.
“I had to figure out who we had and didn’t have at that point,” she said.
Eastland acknowledged she never reached low-lying areas to evacuate campers early in the storm because floodwaters blocked passage. Questioned why, as chief medical officer, she did not alert other medical staff beforehand, she offered no response.
Steward family attorney Christina Yarnell pressed Eastland, who was a Camp Mystic camper, counselor, or staff member since 2002. “You knew the property. You knew the flood lines. You knew access points,” Yarnell said. “Your children knew them. These were first-year campers … Cile needed your help, and you abandoned her, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Eastland said.
“You had a heightened duty of care, and on that night, it didn’t seem like you made a lot of effort to help campers under your care. It seems like you only helped the campers named Eastland. Is that correct”?
“My children aren’t campers,” Eastland said.
“Those are the only ones you thought about, correct?”
“That’s not true,” said Eastland.
“You didn’t make a lot of effort to find anybody else.”
“I couldn’t go find anybody else,” Eastland said.
The hearing is set to conclude on Wednesday.
